Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! Guess who’s speaking at the “2010 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference”?
As the title of the post indicates, it’s none other than C.J. Mahaney. Wait a minute!!! Is Mahaney Southern Baptist? Absolutely not! He heads up a “family of churches” known as Sovereign Grace Ministries. Why in the world will Mahaney be addressing Southern Baptists?
Don’t believe it’s possible? Check out the web site advertising the SBC Pastors’ Conference that takes place just prior to the SBC Annual Meeting in sunny Orlando. http://sbcpc.net/
And here’s the line-up of speakers: Al Mohler, Andy Stanley, C.J. Mahaney, Danny Akin, David Landrith, David Platt, David Uth, Francis Chan, Ken Whitten, Matt Chandler, Ravi Zacharias, Russell Moore, Steve Gaines, and Tony Evans.
Take a look at the following greeting posted at the P.C. web site:
Welcome from Kevin Ezell
“The 2010 Southern Baptist Convention Pastors’ Conference will be held June 13-14, in Orlando, Florida, and I am proud to serve as this year’s Pastors’ Conference president. The conference is open to anyone wishing to attend. SBC President Johnny Hunt and I are anticipating upwards of 10,000 attendees at the two-day event, which immediately precedes the SBC annual meeting. I hope you’ll be there and eager to explore the “Greater Things” that are yet to be done.”
Who is Kevin Ezell? Al Mohler (who not coincidentally heads the speaker list) loves to “Tweet”. The answer is provided in a Twitter post by Mohler last June. Check it out:
“congratulates my pastor Kevin Ezell on his election as president of the SBC Pastors Conference!”
Immediately following this joyous news is the following comment by Mohler on Twitter:
“congratulates my dear friend Jimmy Scroggins as new VP of SBC Pastor’s Conference. What a faithful & wonderful leader and pastor. #sbc2009 12:45 PM Jun 22nd, 2009 from Tweetie“
Don’t you just LOVE Twitter? It takes away all the guesswork… It’s amazing how much information people post with this communication tool. Yes, as Al Mohler has so joyously indicated, Kevin Ezell is HIS pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville. And what Mohler wants, Mohler gets…
Did you notice that Ezell claims there should be upwards of 10,000 attendees at this conference? You can rest assured they won’t all be “Southern Baptists” because a good number will be from Sovereign Grace Ministries. C.J. will see to it that his “family of churches” is well-represented.
To read more about the upcoming Pastors’ Conference, check out this Baptist Press article dated January 27, 2010.
SBC Pastors’ Conference to focus on ‘Greater Things;’ website, speakers unveiled
As you likely know, the current president of the SBC, Johnny Hunt, will be stepping down after serving a two-year term. Here’s what I’m speculating will happen at the annual meeting in June. There will be a concerted effort on the part of Mohler and the growing ranks of reformed Baptists to elect a president that reflects their particular brand of theology. After all, many of the “messengers” who will be voting will be hyped up after attending the Pastors’ Conference a few days before. Now I could be wrong… but I think Mark Dever is their candidate of choice. Funny, Mark and I were students at Duke during the same time; however, I believe I’m one year his senior.
Well, that’s enough for today… Tomorrow Dee and I will pontificate on these developments.
Interestingly enough, some folks think Mac Brunson, from Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church (who, I believe, is supposed to deliver the keynote speech) is a candidate for the position of SBC President. I guess we’ll have to see if the legal imbroglio he is involved in with blogger FBCJaxWatchdog hurts his chances.
Tikatu
Read tomorrow. We are looking at these speakers more carefully.
Thanks for your input.
Tikatu,
I don’t have any inside information on the SBC presidency — I’m just speculating based on trends I’m seeing within the Southern Baptist Convention. I do know that Dever has had leadership aspirations in the past. Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Dever.
“… he narrowly missed being elected as the convention’s first vice-president in June 2006,and he does serve the convention as a trustee of its Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.”
If Dever doesn’t run this time, perhaps he will in the future.
Looks like the coming S B C Circus has its share of Cult Clowns. The only thing missing will be the Deacon Disciple followers selling peanuts and popcorn in the aisles to those fakes who are attending within that Baptist Mafia!
Is it “coincidence” that we’re looking at the Calvinistas immediately following our series on the Prosperity Pimps?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!
This actually looks like a good line up of speakers to me. I have never heard Maheney, but look forward to hearing him.
The fact that some of these guys are not Southern Baptists is no big deal. The first non-Southern Baptist that I heard speak at the PC was James Kennedy in 1985 (yes I was at the Dallas Convention – the largest meeting of Christians in a deliberative body in the history of our faith). I have heard several more since then.
I do not think that non-SBC folks should dominate the slate of speakers, but I think it is good to have some each year. I would object, however, to having theological liberals speak at the PC.
Anonymous,
Dee and I heard C.J. Mahaney speak in person last year at an SGM church. We can already predict that he will spend the first 20 minutes swooning over Mohler, Moore, Akin, etc. and “connecting” with the audience. He’s very good at this, as you will see.
Be sure you spell his name correctly while you are at the conference. It’s “MAHANEY”. I’m sure he will appreciate it. Have fun!!!
Maybe some the true and faithful Baptist ministers are afraid to speak now because of the backlash they would receive from telling the truths about the current state of this group.
Thanks, Deb. I will try to remember the spelling.
I am not easy on public speakers. They can either bring it, or they can’t, in my opinion. A person might not be a good public speaker, and that’s o.k. They may be good at other things.
But we’ll see if this guy can speak. I will not be impressed with a love fest. I can do that!
Dr. Who,
You’re gonna LOVE tomorrow’s post, so please don’t miss it! It’s a re-posting of a Wartburg Watch article from late May 2009. Did you know about us way back then? We are working on transferring over our archives to the new blog format. Yes, we’re technopeasants. Pray for us in that regard!
I put A LOT of research into the upcoming post, and I sincerely hope it will open blind eyes.
Blessings!
Don’t forget… he’ll also direct you to the nearest bookstand. I don’t think SGM believes in libraries… the one church I visited, and heard Mahaney speak to boot, only had a bookstore in the lobby. I was scratching my head for a while. Oh and the head coverings threw me off a bit too.
HA! That’s probably true. One SBC Pastor wrote on the famous social networking site the other day about declines in baptism are dropping in teens. He then questioned why. I responed that it’s no wonder people are jumping ship.
Lise,
Love your comment!
Although the SBC Pastors’ Conference is FREE to attendees (that’s quite unusual for these guys!), I have no doubt that Mahaney and others will have LOTS and LOTS of resources for sale like they do at T4G.
” Al Mohler, Andy Stanley, C.J. Mahaney, Danny Akin, David Landrith, David Platt, David Uth, Francis Chan, Ken Whitten, Matt Chandler, Ravi Zacharias, Russell Moore, Steve Gaines, and Tony Evans.”
How bizarre. They are covering all the bases. Andy Stanley is a motivational speaker who might mention the Word or Jesus once in a while. He is the one who is real big on the pastor as CEO. And we have our assorted Patriarchs, pervert protectors (Gaines) and the guy who obeyed the government and did not use Jesus’ name for the National Day of Prayer so as not to offend the non believers. (Ravi Zacherias.
Not only is Ezell Mohler’s pastor (Mohler runs the place) but Russell Moore was also hired as a pastor of one of Highviews campi. I guess being Dean at SBTS, writing all the books and the speaking gigs were not enough money for him. The Book of Records states that Deans made 120,000 in 2007. Hmmm. NIce income streams if you can get it.
Also, Highview has traditionally been congregation polity. But Mohler and company are turing it into elder led through the back door. It should not be hard now that they have 4 campi and most folks are simply few sitters obeying their leaders.
(How they took over some smaller churches is another look inside the corruption of our SBC leaders)
for anonymous who does not know Mahaney…check out the sgmsurvivors blog. It is a cult.
“Although the SBC Pastors’ Conference is FREE to attendees (that’s quite unusual for these guys!), I have no doubt that Mahaney and others will have LOTS and LOTS of resources for sale like they do at T4G.”
Not really free. The people in SBC pews pay for it. It has become an event that sends a message: Who are the up and coming celebrities in Christendom and who are being supported by the leaders because they have had some trouble. (Gaines and perhaps Mahaney)
Lydia
Thank you for your comment. It reminds me of the time my MBA program visited Washington DC. Some of us went to see the National Zoo in our free time. I was surprised that there was no entrance fee and made a comment to the effect of “Oh, it”s free.” One of my professors turned to me and said, “I should flunk you right here and now. Have you ever heard of taxes?”